Another day another speculation about NRL rights. This time Seven and TEN could again become partners in sport broadcasting but this time the NRL. Its going to be an interesting couple of months that is for sure. From what i have read in the past Seven are keen on State of Origin mainly and could go for a Friday night and Sunday arvo match to go hand in hand with its AFL coverage. Obviously the new commission has a war on its hands and they may even break up the NRL rights to as much as individual matches. Something quite unprecedented in broadcasting of Australian Sport.

THE Ten Network is considering a joint bid with Seven for the rugby league broadcasting rights, to challenge the stranglehold of Nine and Fox Sports on televising games.

A bullish Fox Sports boss Patrick Delany declared in the Herald yesterday that the pay-TV network would not be beaten for the five-year rights, with its partnership with Nine expected to guarantee the ARL Commission a deal of $1.2 billion.

As a result, competitor Ten is believed to be weighing up the prospect of joining forces with another contender, Seven, in an effort to out-bid the existing rights holders, who have first and last rights with the ARLC. There was no official reaction from either network yesterday but a source with knowledge of the rights process said Ten would look seriously at a partnership.

''That would be the preferred option. I don't think they would want to buy the whole lot,'' the source said.

A pact between Ten and Seven has a precedent, with the two free-to-air networks having combined in the past to win the AFL broadcast rights.

While Seven has the resources to make an audacious bid for all games, their AFL programming means it is restricted in how many NRL matches it could televise. A combined bid with Ten would also make sense for the independent commission, who would be in a position to drive up the price of the overall deal with two free-to-air channels on board rather than one.

Ten and Seven cannot officially engage with the ARLC until after April 30, when Nine and Fox Sports' individual periods of exclusivity in negotiations expires. The bidding process is set to accelerate quickly once that date is cleared.

''It is early days and people are getting their ducks in a row,'' the source said. ''If Seven and Ten do bid, you've got to figure out how much they can pay to knock out Nine's last rights.

''It makes sense [for the ARLC] to bring in two free-to-air networks - it's one of the ways to get the price up. When the AFL sold their free-to-air rights to two networks it drove the rights up by 30 per cent.''

Ten's new chairman Lachlan Murdoch and chief executive James Warburton have made clear their intentions to be serious bidders for the NRL broadcast rights but it is increasingly apparent they may not be able to compete on their own. The third-ranked broadcaster confirmed a 70.1 per cent dip in half-year profit on Thursday, so it should come as no surprise they are open to bidding in tandem with another network.

Seven, meanwhile, is reported to be interested in getting its hands on State of Origin but if it chooses to bid for every game, or in partnership with Ten, it could on-sell particular games to subscription television or even other networks.

Whatever the result, a joint Ten-Seven bid is almost certain to drive up the price Nine and Fox Sports will be made to pay to secure the five-year rights. The final figure will comfortably exceed the present $500 million, six-year deal and clubs remain hopeful it will pass the $1 billion mark.

Alternatively, the ARLC could seek to break up its games and sell the television rights in packages to particular networks; for example State of Origin to one, a format such as Monday night football to another and Friday night football to another.

Fox Sports wants to broadcast all games live, televising Nine's three games concurrently in a move to retain its subscribers in NSW and Queensland. Both Fox Sports and Nine will be able to make a final bid if their first offer to the ARLC is not bettered by 20 per cent by their rivals.

The Nine Network's bid for Rugby League is in and now its time for Seven and TEN to counter it. Nine want more ads and longer breaks between play. If i were the NRL looking at this deal right now i would be laughing for starters. Its double what was offered last time. However for Nine to want to dictate how a game of rugby league is played? That is going a bit far if you ask me. Come on Seven and TEN its time to knock the smiles of the Nine Networks face and increase the bid by 20% and then bam the rights are gone!

CHANNEL 9 has launched a $1billion bid to retain NRL TV rights but with a catch - time-outs during games for commercial breaks, and live Thursday night football.

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The radical proposal is part of a joint bid by Nine and Fox Sports that heralds the most significant changes to TV sport since Kerry Packer launched night cricket and reduced eight-ball overs to six, specifically to sell extra advertising.

The Daily Telegraph understands the deal would allow Nine to raise an extra $35 million in annual revenue by showing up to 12 commercials during a game, twice as many as they currently offer their advertisers.

Nine boss David Gyngell and network CEO Jeff Browne will deliver their bid to the NRL's independent commission on Monday. It includes:

*INCREASING the overall time of a game from 90 to 95 minutes;

*HALF-TIME extended from 12 to 14 minutes to play more commercials;

*30-SECOND breaks for sideline scrum stoppages;

*30-SECOND breaks for line drop-outs;

*30-SECOND breaks between try conversions and restarts; and

*AT LEAST four games a season to be played on Thursday nights.

Nine's Sunday match may be broadcast live with a 4pm start, meaning at least seven of the eight games each round would be shown live.

Nine and the NRL have been working together for several months to maximise revenue without ruining the free-flowing nature of the game.

State of Origin coach Ricky Stuart, former coaches Daniel Anderson and John Lang and former players Wayne Pearce and Trent Barrett were part of a committee that agreed on areas for stopping play. Stoppages have been aimed at times when play is held up anyway.

"It takes an average 35 seconds for sideline restarts, 25 seconds for line drop-outs and 23 seconds for try restarts,'' NRL director of football Nathan McGuirk said.

"So we're not going to be radically slowing down the game with these changes.''

NRL chief executive David Gallop was reluctant to comment about finer details of talks with Nine's management."It's not appropriate to discuss details of our negotiations with the broadcasters,'' Mr Gallop said.

"We are looking at ways to maximise value for broadcasters with ad breaks at appropriate times while maintaining the continuity and physical nature of the game.''

The addition of six 30-second commercials is the only way Nine believes it can make a return from its vastly increased $1 billion rights contract without slugging advertisers.

Nine currently charges $50,000 for 30-second commercials on the top-rating Friday night football games, making $300,000 during live play.

Under the new deal, that would double to $600,000, on top of pre-game, half-time and post-game ad-breaks.

Taking into account Origin and finals, the breaks in play could deliver Nine an extra $40 million a year in advertising.

Nine walks away from Sony deal and according to Gyngell Seven is set to walk away from Universal which would be a huge deal. One thing though is that imo Seven will keep Universal but maybe team up with Foxtel like the TEN deal with FOX. I only say this because of Universals News deal with Seven, just a hunch though.

He cited Downton Abbey and Revenge as the only two overseas shows working on Australian TV.

“If you throw in The Big Bang Theory and a few other small bits of television you can fill up schedules but you will not pull big audiences to FTA television when you are competing for eyeballs for television from a range of devices.”

“People wrote that the licence fee rebate went to to bottom line – it hasn’t. The profitability of the three commercial TV networks are at an all-time low. We have to keep investing in local production and the government respects that. I’m going to lobby him to go harder to reduce the next round of licence fees not so we can improve the bottom line, but so we can again invest in Australian production and Australian drama.”

He singled out TEN’s Offspring as the best on local TV lately.

“We have made some OK television in the past three years, but our new House Husbands for me is the best piece of character drama we have made at Channel Nine. I’ve put plenty of bad television on air in the past but I reckon I’m right on this one.

“Underbelly Badness is an amazing piece of television. We need to do some work with investors to ensure that when you come up with something as good as this it shouldn’t have to stop after 65 episodes. Underbelly has given great employment and great opportunities to different people as it’s been a different story every series.

“One project important to me is Kerry Packer’s War. The story Chris Lee has told and the research he has clearly done is so good that there’s only a few people like myself, James Packer, his mother and perhaps John Cornell will pick up on. Lachy Hulmes’ performance is so good that I get a little nervous and a little bit sweaty when I see it.”

The funny thing here is the NRL have stated a 5 year deal not a 6 year deal so what gives? Things are heating up and i hope and pray that Nine lose everything. They don't deserve Rugby League anymore!!!

Foxtel and Nine are believed to have lodged a bid of close to $1.1bn for the 2013-18 Australian NRL rights. Seven and Ten have also separately presented bids for the TV rights.

The new ARL Commission is likely to secure at least a $1 billion pay day after offers for the rugby league broadcast rights were quietly tabled last week. Sources close to the ARL confirmed that Seven West Media, Ten Network and a partnership of pay-television group Fox Sports Australia and free-to-air broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co separately presented bids at the NRL’s head office in Sydney on Friday.

It is believed the incumbent broadcasters, Foxtel and Nine, lodged a bid of close to $1.1 billion for the 2013-18 Australian television and digital rights. This six-year offer represents a significant premium to the current deal with Nine and Fox Sports – worth about $100 million per year – but falls short of the ARL’s preference of striking a deal worth at least the equivalent $1 billion over five years.

Nevertheless, once the contribution for the New Zealand rights – currently held by Sky – are included, the code and its adviser, Greenhill Caliburn, are likely to achieve the bottom end of their goal.

The new ARL Commission was formed earlier this year to run the National Rugby League after News Limited relinquished its 50 per cent stake in the code. The ARL is desperate to get close to the $1.25 billion Seven, Foxtel and Telstra agreed to pay for the 2012-16 AFL broadcast and digital rights. There is speculation that Greenhill Caliburn’s fee includes a hefty bonus if an equivalent price of more than $1 billion (over five years) can be achieved.

Sources close to the ARL would not discuss Seven’s presentation but there is also the possibility executive chairman Kerry Stokes – who surprised some observers by joining the Seven delegation on Friday – could attempt to trump its rivals by tabling an aggressive bid that pushed up the price. Other senior media executives to attend included Ten chairman Lachlan Murdoch and chief executive James Warburton, Nine chief executive David Gyngell and News Limited chief executive Kim Williams.

The NRL broadcast rights negotiations will be one of the largest media deals struck this year with far-reaching consequences for the industry. Mr Stokes could potentially use a big offer to extract concessions from News Limited, which owns 25 per cent of Foxtel and 50 per cent of Fox Sports. News Ltd has offered to buy identical shareholdings in Foxtel and Fox Sports held by James Packer’s Consolidated Media Holdings for $2 billion or $3.50 per share.

The majority of Fox Sports’s top-rating programs are NRL matches and the broadcaster could be forced to up its bid if Seven were to make a generous bid for multiple matches. A series of other sports rights negotiations including V8 Supercar and the next Olympics are on hold until the NRL is resolved.

The media negotiations are complicated by a “first and last” rights held by Nine, which has been a source of friction between the ARL and Nine.

Both sides have employed lawyers to test the strength of the first and last right that enables Nine to match any final bid by its rivals. The ARL would prefer to have four out of eight regular season matches per round broadcast on free-to-air – Nine currently airs three – but may be forced to settle for the current structure because the first and last rights allow Nine to mirror the structure of the current deal. There is also debate over whether this means the bids should be for five or six years.

While NRL matches are a valuable television commodity, weak advertising markets may reduce the ability of broadcasters to make bids that do not generate a profit. Nine lost money on the London Olympics while Foxtel and Ten did not generate a satisfactory return from the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The current AFL deal has added to Seven and Foxtel’s costs with the pay-TV group disappointed additional AFL matches has not translated into strong subscriber growth.

The worst thing imaginable for Rugby League fans. 1 FTA LIVE each week, 2 on delay. Its absolutely pathetic. The NRL is a dying breed now. Clubs will go belly up and yes its the biggest deal the NRL have ever had but the problem is its the worst deal ever. Channel 9 will continue to kill the game and well now i couldn't care less. The new commission is a joke. Sorry but this is just crazy. How can a sports governing body give a debt up to their ears network a $1bn deal? Crazy

Nine and FOX Sports have retained the rights to the NRL in a new 5 year broadcasting deal with the Australian Rugby League Commission.

The deal from 2013 – 2017 is worth $1.025B being $925m in cash and $100m in advertising.

Nine Network Managing Director, Jeffrey Browne said, “We are delighted to be teaming up with FOX Sports again to bring the Australian audience the best coverage of NRL games for the next five years – Rugby League is a backbone of our business and we are delighted with this result after extensive negotiations.”

The Nine Network will broadcast:

o Three weekly matches (two on Friday and one on Sunday);o Three Thursday evening matches over the course of the year;o A stand-alone Test and City v Country weekend;o Wednesday night State of Origin matches;o A night-time Grand Final (7.15pm kick-off);o The Roosters Dragons Anzac Day matches;o Two hours of Rugby League content each evening on digital Channel 94 plus two hours of content on Saturday and Sunday morning;o Nine will ensure that all of its matches are telecast on either the ‘primary’ or ‘multi-channel’ station in each state;o The Queensland in Trust Super Cup.

Nine Entertainment Co Ltd CEO David Gyngell added, “Rugby league is very much part of our heritage. It’s one of the many things we do best, and it is pivotal to our position as the biggest television brand in the nation.

“I want to pay tribute to Jeff Browne and his team for their tireless work through this exhaustive rights process. The outcome he has secured is a terrific result not just for Nine, but for the great game itself and all its stakeholders.”

David Gyngell confirms Nine will not be showing Live Friday night games on primary / multichannels at the same time, choosing to screen Qld matches Live into Qld and NSW Live into NSW on Nine, followed by alternative matches thereafter. Gyngell made no apology for commercialising a costly broadcasting deal. Games will be in HD from 2014.

FOX Sports will continue its ‘FIVE LIVE’ NRL offering with up to five matches to screen exclusively Live.

Under the agreement, FOX Sports will continue its Live coverage of Monday Night Football and Super Saturday and introduce a regular prime time Sunday night fixture to increase its NRL Sunday coverage to two Live matches.

All matches on FOX Sports will be broadcast in High Definition, with no ad breaks during play. In a major coup for fans, FOX Sports has also acquired digital rights to stream its five live weekly matches via IPTV and tablet devices.

FOX Sports CEO, Patrick Delany, said: “NRL is in the FOX Sports DNA and we are delighted to have the opportunity to build on our 16-year relationship with the code. The renewal of our NRL rights and new digital rights confirms Foxtel as a must-have for NRL fans.”

“FOX Sports will continue to deliver on our promise of five live matches each round, introduce a 6.30pm Sunday night match to open up a live Sunday double-header and build on our award-winning coverage of Monday Night Football and Super Saturday,” he said.

“Our new digital and IPTV rights will also enable us to deliver live streaming of matches to iPad, following the path of Foxtel’s incredibly successful London 2012 app. We will also make all of our matches available on demand through Foxtel.”

FOX Sports to also launch new magazine shows in 2013 and move to new premises.

Channel TEN finally wins the rights to a footy code. They will have the FTA broadcast rights to the Wallabies Test Matches. Maybe Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will finally get LIVE games.

The Australian wrote:Ten wins right to broadcast Wallabies Test matches

THE Ten Network is poised to become the new, dedicated television broadcaster of the Wallabies and Test rugby.

The network will announce today that it has secured the rights to show Wallabies' Tests on free-to-air television from commercial rival the Nine Network, which is primarily a rugby league and cricket channel.

Pay TV network Fox Sports owns the broadcast rights to Australian rugby, which includes the Wallabies and Super Rugby.

But under the federal government's anti-siphoning laws, it is required to on-sell the rights to show the Wallabies to free-to-air TV.

The Seven Network showed Test rugby for many years, but problems arose when the station increased its AFL coverage.

Fox Sports on-sold the free-to-air rights to Nine two years ago, but there have been similar conflicts with rugby league, particularly during the NRL finals series, which took precedence.

It is understood that Fox Sports, in consultation with the ARU, has decided Ten, which missed out on the AFL and rugby league, would be a better home for the Wallabies.

Meanwhile, the ARU has considered the historic review commissioned earlier this year into the game's corporate governance.

While sports such as AFL and rugby league have moved to independent commissions, Australian rugby is still administered by an old-fashioned federated model.

Former sports minister Mark Arbib conducted the independent review.

The ARU's governance and policy committee, chaired by Peter Cosgrove, received the report yesterday and presented recommendations to the board at its meeting in Sydney.

"Our current governance structure needed to be looked at, best practices for sport considered, and cognisance given to the fact our game has evolved rapidly in the professional era," ARU chairman Michael Hawker said.

"We now look forward to communicating with stakeholders in regards to the report and recommendations." Even if the ARU board approves the recommendations, it will still require ratification by an extraordinary general meeting of the member unions. Any change to the ARU constitution requires a 75 per cent majority vote.

Of the 14 votes, NSW has five, Queensland three and the other states and territories have one each. This means NSW could veto any proposed change.

Meanwhile, ARU chief executive John O'Neill has repudiated All Blacks coach Steve Hansen's criticism of Australia for poaching New Zealanders.

Hansen accused the ARU of "pinching" the Wallabies' New Zealand-born fullback Mike Harris, who kicked five penalty goals in the 18-18 draw between Australia and New Zealand in Brisbane on Saturday night, which denied the All Blacks the opportunity to equal the world record run of 17 straight Test wins.

Harris joined Queensland two years ago because he was unwanted in New Zealand.

"The comments were insulting and ill-informed," O'Neill said.

"They were clearly not made with regard to New Zealand's history of using players from outside their borders. I would not want to guess how many players from the Pacific Islands have worn the All Blacks jersey.

"There was a halfback named Steve Devine from Boggabri in NSW who attended St Joseph's College in Sydney, played for the Australian sevens team and went on to play 10 Tests for the All Blacks."

The new output arrangement with HBO gives Foxtel, Oz’s dominant pay-TV player, a longer hold-back period before shows are available to free-to-air networks and stipulates that it can run programs as soon as possible after they air in the U.S. Foxtel will be 50% owned by News Corp. once the conglomerate’s Consolidated Media acquisition goes through and much as the News Corp.-controlled Sky has done with HBO shows in the UK, Foxtel in Oz intends to fast-track series after their U.S. launches. Foxtel will also position Showcase, one of the Showtime movie channels it’s acquiring from Sony, NBCUniversal, Fox, Paramount and Liberty Media, as Australia’s “home of HBO” just like Sky has done with the UK’s Sky Atlantic. Showcase already screens HBO shows including Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Girls, True Blood and Veep. Among the new shows covered is upcoming police drama True Detective, with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

well there has been a lack of HBO shows exclusive to FTA anyway, so it was expected.

shows like Hung and Boardwalk Empire have already been played on Foxtel so FTA have had replay rights only so far lately, he'll even Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8 hasn't even been played yet on Nine or Go! so nothing really has changed, but I'm sure they can still repeat HBO shows on FTA like they are doing now.

at least with Showtime there's a mixture of premiere exclusives on FTA like Homeland and Foxtel Exclusives like Dexter.

but I do miss the early good old days of HBO shows on FTA, like The Sopranos and such.

Channel Ten picks up the 2014 Olympics from Sochi. Sort of strange that they only went for the Winter Olympics. Usually these things come as a package deal with both the next Winter and Summer Olympics. Good for TEN. They have something decent in the first 2 weeks of 2013.

It is believed Ten paid around $20 million for the right to show the Games, which will take place in the city of Sochi in Russia in February, the Financial Review reports.

Ten recently made a $500 million offer for the next five-year cricket broadcast rights starting from 2013-14, and new chief executive Hamish McLennan is thought to be seeking sports rights to improve the network's ratings.

Channel Nine retains Cricket rights for Tests and One Day matches for a record $400m while Channel TEN gains control of the Big Bash League for $100m.

One question is where the hell is Nine pulling all this money from? Up next the tennis rights are now open. Will TEN put a bid in and make Seven pay premium price or will Seven up the ante. Remember this, there is no last rights clause in the tennis deal so the best bid wins.

Also Nine is set to buy back Adelaide and Perth from WIN to try and regain national status.

CHANNEL Nine has won rights to broadcast Test and one-day international cricket for the next five years after matching Channel Ten's record $500 million bid.

Nine officially informed Cricket Australia late this afternoon.

The move means Nine will broadcast this summer's Ashes campaign, continuing the network's 36-year association with cricket going back to Kerry Packer's World Series cricket revolution.

Under the deal, Nine will pay about $80 million a year, while Network Ten will pay about $20 million a year for the Big Bash Twenty20 tournament.

Cricket Australia has recorded the richest pay day in its history thanks to Ten's new chief executive Hamish McLennan, who initially lobbed the audacious $500 million bid.

The Ten bid forced Nine to increase its annual broadcast fee to Cricket Australia by 78 per cent from the $45 million a year deal which began in 2006.

Ten's capture of the Big Bash rights will help rejuvenate the third-placed network and attract new advertisers. It comes after Mr McLennan also snapped up rights to the Sochi Winter Olympics next February for a bargain price.

Nine chief executive David Gyngell pulled off what many media analysts thought would be impossible - convincing Nine's owners, U.S. hedge funds Apollo and Oaktree Capital, to stump up a record amount to continue Nine's cricket heritage.

He was only able to provide comfort to his owners by convincing Bermuda billionaire Bruce Gordon to sell two of his capital city stations owned by his regional WIN network.

In a deal worth about $350 million, Nine will purchase the WIN station in Adelaide immediately and has undertaken to purchase the Perth station, most likely next year, when an Abbott government changes media rules which presently prevent TV networks from broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population.

Nine, which owns stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle, would go over the limit if it purchased both Adelaide and Perth immediately.

The deal means Nine can limit its losses on the cricket by reducing costs across the new network. Mr Gyngell has also negotiated an increase in licence fees from WIN to broadcast Nine content, including the cricket.

It also means that Nine becomes a true national network for the first time and can set about improving its ratings in Adelaide and particularly Perth, where the Kerry Stokes-owned Seven Network is extremely dominant.

Nine also bid a record $95 million a year to retain NRL free-to-air rights last year, which analysts estimate costs the network a net $35 million a year, taking into account advertising booked against the NRL and additional broadcasting expenses.

Between the Nine and Ten deals, Cricket Australia will receive more than $100 million a season, a massive jump on the $57 million it received under its previous deals.

The Daily Telegraph understands a federal parliamentary committee is expected to soon recommend that a rule be lifted that prevents networks broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population. Although Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is in favour of lifting the rule, it is not likely to be passed into law until after the September 14 federal election.

As part of the WIN deal, Nine has negotiated to receive bigger licence fees for Nine content broadcast on WIN's regional network.

It also means Nine's cost of retaining the cricket can be spread over a national network, satisfying Nine's owners, US hedge funds Apollo and Oaktree Capital.